I spent the night tossing and turning.
Catherine was behind everything?
Sohow, part of refused to believe it.
It wasn’t that I still had any sisterly feelings for her. It was just that... it didn’t seem like her.
She was catty and vengeful, and she wasn’t above resorting to low tricks to get at .
But her tactics usually involved spreading rumours, backstabbing, or sabotaging my relationships.
I’d have more readily believed if she’d tried to seduce Ashton than hired a gunman to kill .
Where would she even go to find people like that?
But Ashton’s network of contacts was far more powerful than mine, and I had no reason to doubt what his n had dug up.
Besides, Catherine had confessed, hadn’t she?
Shaking those thoughts away, I dragged myself out of bed when the alarm rang.
Against the doctors’ wishes and mine, Ashton had checked out of the hospital and co ho.
I insisted we take separate bedrooms. I’m a restless sleeper; I toss and turn, and I was terrified I’d accidentally kick him in the stomach and make his injury worse.
Waking up alone felt odd. I’d gotten used to sharing a bed with him.
Back in the room I’d first stayed in when I moved into his house, I sat for a while, still groggy.
When my phone rang, I groped for it and answered without looking. ‘Hello?’
‘Mirabelle, it’s . Please don’t hang up. I have sothing important to tell you.’ Rhys sounded rushed, anxious that I’d cut him off the second I heard his voice.
‘What is it?’ I said, my tone cold.
‘I know about the attempt on your life, and what happened at your studio. Do you know who was really behind it?’ Rhys spoke with a serious intensity.
I frowned. ‘Thanks for your concern. I know. My husband has already looked into it for , so you don’t need to bother.’
‘Mirabelle, I know you hate , you don’t want to talk to , but this isn’t what you think. On this, Ashton is lying to you. It wasn’t Catherine,’ he said, deadly serious.
‘What are you talking about? If it wasn’t Catherine, then who was it?’ I was wide awake now.
‘Do you really want to know? I’ll be outside your studio at lunchti. et , and I’ll tell you. I promise you won’t regret it. And Ashton didn’t just get it wrong, he did it on purpose. He already knew who wanted to hurt you. He’s protecting them by using Catherine as a scapegoat.’ Rhys still sounded utterly convinced.
‘That’s not possible.’ His words made my heart clench. ‘He wouldn’t lie to .’
‘Maybe he wouldn’t about other things. He treats you well, he protects you, he’d probably give you anything you wanted to make you happy. But on this, he really is lying to protect soone else. Do you understand? Don’t be so naive, don’t just trust him unconditionally. He might be laughing at you for being such a fool.’
‘How can you say that? I don’t believe you,’ I said, flustered and angry.
But inside, I felt a pang of doubt.
‘I have proof. If you want to know the truth, then et for lunch. I won’t try anything, I just want to see you. I miss you.’ Rhys hung up then, not giving a chance to say no.
‘Is it true?’ I muttered, my brow furrowed. ‘Ashton... who is he trying to protect?’
I shook my head, talking to myself again. ‘No. It can’t be. Ashton wouldn’t do that to . Rhys must be lying.’
I got out of bed, paced, then paced so more.
‘I won’t go. I won’t see him,’ I decided.
But then I felt like I’d just be deluding myself if I didn’t.
‘Damn it, what should I do?’ I sighed. ‘Fine. I’ll go and see what Rhys is up to. I’ll see what so-called proof he has.’
Over breakfast, I asked Ashton, ‘How did you find out it was Catherine?’
He looked at . ‘I put Harry and Dominic on it. They reached out to so contacts in the police force, plus... you rember Kylian and Olivier?’
I nodded. They were Ashton’s old business partners, the ones who now ran Titanova Corp, mostly out of Europe.
Ashton said, ‘They made a few calls, found out which organisation the gunman worked for. From there, it was straightforward.’
‘So... everything points back to Catherine.’
Ashton nodded. ‘Why do you ask?’
‘Just curious. What about the studio sabotage? How’d she manage to hire a hacker? She said she paid for one, but I still can’t quite figure out where she got the contacts, or even the money. From what I heard, Rhys left her with almost nothing after the divorce. Last I knew, she was leaving Skyline with Mu—with Caroline.’
Ashton set down his fork and looked at properly. ‘She did leave, but that was a while ago. I didn’t ntion this, but they—Caroline, Catherine, and Serenna—moved back to Skyline last month.’
I pressed a hand to my temple. ‘Right! I forgot. I saw Serenna at the party. I should’ve been more surprised. It just slipped my mind.’
‘Harry has the full file—everything he found, nas, dates, paynts. If you want, I can have him send you a copy.’
I shook my head. ‘There’s no point. I was just wondering.’
Ashton held my gaze for a long mont, quiet and steady.
I looked down at my plate.
The morning dragged on, painfully slow.
Finally, noon rolled around. The second it did, I hurried out of the studio.
There, parked not far away, was Rhys’s familiar car.
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